A documentary feature film set for production in July/August 2023.
ABOUT THE FILM
Over the course of a month at sea, an international team of scientists attempt to gain insights into the Earth’s last deglaciation period. Around 15,000 years ago, the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet destabilized and then retreated at an accelerated rate, but the reasons for this rapid deglaciation remain unclear. The Baffin Bay Deglaciation Experiment (BADEX) seeks a greater understanding of this paleoclimate event, in the hopes of gaining deeper insights into climate change today.
As the BADEX scientists map the seafloor and extract a series of sediment cores from beneath the sea, a narrative emerges about climate change, then and now.
As the global team of scientists conduct their month-long, round-the-clock field campaign, they reflect on the nature of their work across multiple time scales, and their own subjective experience of time at sea. From the human time scale that chronicles three generations of scientists working together aboard the research vessel Neil Armstrong, to the geologic time scale necessary for the scientists to study paleoclimate, A Map of the World in Time reflects on the nature and purpose of scientific inquiry, and the stakes for all life on Earth. Utilizing a hybrid documentary approach that incorporates long takes coupled with epistolary-driven voice-over from the scientists and ship’s crew—the film creates a collage of voices and perspectives, on what the work means to them, what motivates the scientists to do their work, and where their thoughts take them on endless days at sea, far from the industrialized world.
PURPOSE & MISSION
A Map of the World in Time is at once an investigation into climate change, and a portrait of a community with a shared mission. The film aims to create a portrait of the scientists and the crew alike, exploring both the critical need for the scientific work and the personal trials and tribulations of a group of individuals working together to better understand climate change and the Earth’s history.
A Map of the World in Time seeks to make a significant contribution to the documentary history of oceanography while also exploring universal themes of endurance and the quest for knowledge, as the BADEX scientists work in unison to to better understand anthropogenic climate change.
The Filmmakers
Georg Koszulinski
Award-winning Writer/Director/Producer of eleven feature fiction and documentary films
Tiffany Albright
Award-winning Producer and screenwriter
Janneke Wade-de Jong
Graduate MFA student and Assistant Director/Assistant Editor
The Scientists Producing the Film
Dr. Robert G. Hatfield
Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida
Dr. Shannon Klotsko
Assistant Professor of Geology, Department of Earth and Ocean Science and Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Dr. Brendan Reilly
Assistant Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
SUPPORT US!
Your donations will help fund this feature documentary by providing the support necessary to complete film production. The filmmakers will join the scientific team for 35 days aboard the research vessel Neil Armstrong this summer. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about the project and get involved. We would love to hear from you!